I had a customer bring me two Abu Garcia reels for service and repair. One of which had a story behind it. While fishing in the Rogue River, he caught an Abu Garcia 6500 C-3 reel that was at the bottom of the river. He gave me both reels with this story and told me to see what, if anything, I could do with the one he brought up from the bottom of the river. I looked at the reel, did a few quick troubleshooting things to determine if the reel was a total loss or not. Other than the obvious “river rash” it had from bouncing along the river bottom, I told him I thought I could get this thing to fishable condition again. Some thorough cleaning, a couple of replaced bearings and drags, and she is ready to fish!!

Lots of river debris inside reel:

River debris buildup on main gear:

Dirt and river debris inside reel:

The inside of the spool was full of debris. The two spool bearings were siezed and needed replacing:

A nice clean reel:

The customer is very pleased that he will now have a backup reel to take with him, a gift from the Rogue River!

Tight Lines!!